Finally! After a break of almost two months since A.A. Williams and Karin Park I've been to my first live show of 2023 this Tuesday!
Since Laibach's current tour doesn't include a stop in Hamburg I chose to drive to Rostock at the Baltic Sea, which meant in total between two or three hours more in the car, but was still manageable without taking a day off. Luckily I'm a little flexible with my working hours.
The city, which I actually had never been to before's, presented itself from its Schokoladenseite: The probably ugly parts were already silhouettes in the twilight of dusk. My desired parking lot was in poor shape, but it was empty, cheap and very close to the not too shabby corner of the old town, where the band was playing in the Nikolaikirche (St. Nicholas Church).
That was new for me. I've seen Laibach in many clubs, in a theatre in Cologne, in the National Art Gallery of Denmark and a monastry in Ljubljana - but not inside a church yet.
Since Laibach's current tour doesn't include a stop in Hamburg I chose to drive to Rostock at the Baltic Sea, which meant in total between two or three hours more in the car, but was still manageable without taking a day off. Luckily I'm a little flexible with my working hours.
The city, which I actually had never been to before's, presented itself from its Schokoladenseite: The probably ugly parts were already silhouettes in the twilight of dusk. My desired parking lot was in poor shape, but it was empty, cheap and very close to the not too shabby corner of the old town, where the band was playing in the Nikolaikirche (St. Nicholas Church).
That was new for me. I've seen Laibach in many clubs, in a theatre in Cologne, in the National Art Gallery of Denmark and a monastry in Ljubljana - but not inside a church yet.
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| St. Nicholas Church Rostock |
And I've also never seen the Slovenians play a show like this before!
Which in itself actually is totally the norm for Laibach and one of the reasons I love this band so much in the first place.
Which in itself actually is totally the norm for Laibach and one of the reasons I love this band so much in the first place.
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| Act I: LOVE IS STILL ALIVE |
"My English is no heaven
My German’s even worse
But I can drive the space ship
Across the Universe"
If I exclude last year's Wir Sind Das Volk performance as a special event, the Sound Of Music tour in March 2019 closed with one of the weirdest, maybe silliest moments in Laibach history as far as I have witnessed at least, when they played the cliché Country song "Surfing Through The Galaxy" from the Iron Sky 2: The Coming Race soundtrack.
Enter fragile traditionalists: That's not Laibach anymore!
Well, leave it to these guys to not only start their new tour with cowgirl Marina Mårtensson walking on stage alone with an acoustic guitar and playing this annoyingly catchy tune, but to derive eight different variations from it and make it a whole fourty minutes show!
Now dubbed "Love Is Still Alive" the very direct homage to the theme song of the John Carpenter movie Dark Star was only the starting point for a whole journey, telling the musical story of what happens after the credits of the movie, when the protagonists leave a destroyed Earth and Moon behind, looking for a new place to live, while their resources are dwindling.
After the spaced-themed Western start with Milan Fras' deadpan bariton and Mårtensson on vocals the stage was soon left to the four instrumentalists, who took the theme through various kinds of space music, from arcade game aesthetics to early Kraftwerk Krautrock with vocoder vocals (which strangely enough heavily reminded me of Dead Neanderthals' "Click" EP) to Galaxy Surfrock and even more spaced-out psychedelic guitar jams, Carpenter / Schulze synths and stripped down Dark Ambient, which really drove home the idea of crossing a vast void.
All in all it was a cleverly constructed concept with a pleasantly nerdy undertone, which didn't take itself too serious, but still pulled off to tell an astonishingly convincing story.
At the very end the lead singers came back to reprise their parts and close this chapter of the night... only for the main Country theme to play during the whole duration of the fifteen minutes of intermission. I usually don't remember what I'm dreaming, but I swear that this damn song's bass line must have been a part of it. Definitely one of the cruelest, most relentless post show earworms ever!
Enter fragile traditionalists: That's not Laibach anymore!
Well, leave it to these guys to not only start their new tour with cowgirl Marina Mårtensson walking on stage alone with an acoustic guitar and playing this annoyingly catchy tune, but to derive eight different variations from it and make it a whole fourty minutes show!
Now dubbed "Love Is Still Alive" the very direct homage to the theme song of the John Carpenter movie Dark Star was only the starting point for a whole journey, telling the musical story of what happens after the credits of the movie, when the protagonists leave a destroyed Earth and Moon behind, looking for a new place to live, while their resources are dwindling.
After the spaced-themed Western start with Milan Fras' deadpan bariton and Mårtensson on vocals the stage was soon left to the four instrumentalists, who took the theme through various kinds of space music, from arcade game aesthetics to early Kraftwerk Krautrock with vocoder vocals (which strangely enough heavily reminded me of Dead Neanderthals' "Click" EP) to Galaxy Surfrock and even more spaced-out psychedelic guitar jams, Carpenter / Schulze synths and stripped down Dark Ambient, which really drove home the idea of crossing a vast void.
All in all it was a cleverly constructed concept with a pleasantly nerdy undertone, which didn't take itself too serious, but still pulled off to tell an astonishingly convincing story.
At the very end the lead singers came back to reprise their parts and close this chapter of the night... only for the main Country theme to play during the whole duration of the fifteen minutes of intermission. I usually don't remember what I'm dreaming, but I swear that this damn song's bass line must have been a part of it. Definitely one of the cruelest, most relentless post show earworms ever!
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| INTERMISSION |
Ok, while we're watching Winnetou on the screen waiting for Laibach to return onto the stage, let me throw in a little review of a certain new EP I picked up from the merch table later:
LAIBACH - Love Is Still Alive (CD) (2023)
Hmm... didn't I just basically already review this? It's the exact same thing as the show, but different of course.
Just like in the beginning of the live performance you wonder how this can possibly remain interesting and entertaining for the whole time - and then it just does. Indeed this shit is horribly addictive.
So as far as a litttle bit silly space-themed EPs go, "Love Is Still Alive" is indeed much more successful / listenable than my other favorite band Voivod's "Ultraman". Yeah, this is fun!
I had it in my car when I picked up my boss' kid and when he saw the cover artwork he asked me if it was a computer game.
Now let's hope that we'll also finally get the actual The Coming Race score at some point later this year! I've heard a rumour it's supposed to come with an actual game - and somehow I have a hunch how that game might look.
Just like in the beginning of the live performance you wonder how this can possibly remain interesting and entertaining for the whole time - and then it just does. Indeed this shit is horribly addictive.
So as far as a litttle bit silly space-themed EPs go, "Love Is Still Alive" is indeed much more successful / listenable than my other favorite band Voivod's "Ultraman". Yeah, this is fun!
I had it in my car when I picked up my boss' kid and when he saw the cover artwork he asked me if it was a computer game.
Now let's hope that we'll also finally get the actual The Coming Race score at some point later this year! I've heard a rumour it's supposed to come with an actual game - and somehow I have a hunch how that game might look.
And now back to church, were things took a dramatic turn towards the dark:
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| Act II: WIR SIND REVISITED |
Similar to the juxtapostion of a lighter first half and a more serious second half on the Sound of Music tour, the band returned with Fras as the sole frontman and an eerily atmospheric Industrial sound.
What could have been more sinister than to follow the previous playfulness with "Ordnung und Disziplin (Müller versus Brecht)" and "Ich bin der Engel der Verzweiflung" from "Wir Sind Das Volk"? Damn.
The oldschool with a new flavour - or let's call it revisited - feeling stayed consistent throughout the whole run of following tracks, which included material from "Also Sprach Zarathustra", "Laibach Revisited" and yet another brand-new album called "Sketches of the Red Districts".
Especially the finale with the bleak and bombastic trinity of "Smrt Za Smrt", "Krvada Gruda - Plodna Zemlja" and "Ti, Ki Izzivaš" took no prisoners. These are just pieces of amazing never ceasing magnitude.
What could have been more sinister than to follow the previous playfulness with "Ordnung und Disziplin (Müller versus Brecht)" and "Ich bin der Engel der Verzweiflung" from "Wir Sind Das Volk"? Damn.
The oldschool with a new flavour - or let's call it revisited - feeling stayed consistent throughout the whole run of following tracks, which included material from "Also Sprach Zarathustra", "Laibach Revisited" and yet another brand-new album called "Sketches of the Red Districts".
Especially the finale with the bleak and bombastic trinity of "Smrt Za Smrt", "Krvada Gruda - Plodna Zemlja" and "Ti, Ki Izzivaš" took no prisoners. These are just pieces of amazing never ceasing magnitude.
Hey, I'm not finished yet!
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| ENCORE: SYMPATHY FOR THE FUTURE |
For the encore the Slovenians changed into their Rock cover mode and Marina Mårtensson returned with a maximum confident cleavage as if to ensure we would at least dream of one other thing than the "Love Is Still Alive" bass line. A fiery appearance which corresponded perfectly with her powerful Soul performance, as Laibach played their poignant version of Leonard Cohen's "The Future", followed by the classic stomp of "Sympathy for the Devil". Lots of Putins in the videos for both songs.
Bookended by the other established Iron Sky 2 track "The Coming Race" yet another extremely memorable Laibach night found its end.
Or did it?
Bookended by the other established Iron Sky 2 track "The Coming Race" yet another extremely memorable Laibach night found its end.
Or did it?
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| END CREDITS |
While I was heading towards the merch table Laibach came back for a second encore. Due to me being distracted I don't have a very vivid memory of that one though. It was a comparably relaxed tune called "Getting Closer". Asking Google I could assume it was a Nitzer Ebb cover, but that could also be completely wrong. I have no idea.
The merch was full of temptations. Especially the socks, hat and ridiculous "Love Is Still Alive" scarf were hard to resist. Even more so the aforementioned "Sketches of the Red Districts" CD. But money is expensive and I've already pre-ordered the vinyl version anyway; now I just have to be patient for several weeks and hope that I won't regret my resistance later.
Until then I have an EP to spin - and yet another Laibach book to read and look at. Haven't even flicked through the whole thing yet, but it doesn't run away and the weekend has just begun, right?
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